Niles man warns public against strange people approaching cars

NILES — A Niles man is warning the public to be safe while driving at night.

He says his wife was approached by two people when she was at a four-way stop.

This happened Sunday night.

The man says his wife was on her way home with their three kids. She had just stopped for gas on 11th Street, just yards from where this happened.

Jeremiah Diaz says his wife then took a usual route along Michigan Street to head home.

That's when a woman approached her car.

“She was screaming about food," said Diaz. "Saying she needed help and needed food. Very dark, the lady came around and came to the window. My wife left the window up and was still trying to converse with the lady to figure out what was going on."

Diaz says while his wife was talking to the woman, she noticed movement from the side.

"It was a gentleman and he started to book his way over to the van. That's the point where she put it back in drive and took off. Then she called me when she got to 3rd Street," said Diaz.

Diaz called the police. He also posted what happened on a Niles Facebook group to warn others. Quickly people started to tell similar stories.

"A friend of mine actually called me after reading the Facebook post saying an hour earlier prior to my wife's interaction, the same thing happened to him and his wife. So I was very shocked at the amount of responses it got," said Diaz.

Diaz says Niles city police told him they will look into the matter, but he's encouraging other drivers to be cautious.

"If anyone is approaching your vehicle, you leave," said Diaz. "Drive on. Call the police. If they need assistance police are the best people to assist them anyway with whatever situation it is."

WSBT 22 reached out to Niles police, but they were not able to provide any information about the investigation at this time.

Other drivers have told WSBT 22 they had the same people approach them around that same area, near Michigan Street in Niles.